I've never experienced anything like what this candle has done, and that includes many other brands, as well as another Country Jar candle (Coffee Shop, which was phenomenal).
When I first got it, I noticed some fragrance oil sweat that smelled heavily of strawberry, which I understand can be from a variety of reasons. Cold smell was very strawberry forward, which makes sense according to the scent notes. But it was/is still sometimes very iffy smelling. The only way I can describe it is to say that it's a step below rotten smelling.. not bad enough to abandon burning altogether though, so I'm still attempting to get through it.
It started off burning almost scentless, maybe a 2/10 throw. I needed to be right next to it to smell anything, and even then what I got was a faint Strawberry, with some light vanilla cream. Second burn was a bit stronger, and I got a bit of all the scents from across the room here and there, so I'd say 5/10 throw. It's been bouncing between 3 and 5/10 since, which is disappointing as I was hoping it would maybe get stronger as it burned further down. That said, the chocolate fudge base note lingers very strongly, and I often notice it coming in the door after a day at work, which is nice.
So, maybe I got an old stock/dud combo? This is the only conclusion I can come to after reading so many positive older reviews. It has burned very clean and evenly, so I suppose that's a positive, but I still can't recommend if this is a possibility going forward.